Hydrangea paniculata cultivar Barbara.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hydrangea plant, botanically known as Hydrangea paniculata, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Barbara.
The new Hydrangea is a product of a breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Essen, Belgium. The objective of the breeding program was to create new Hydrangea cultivars with unique inflorescence forms.
The new Hydrangea originated from a cross-pollination by the Inventor during the summer of 1989 of two unidentified selections of Hydrangea paniculata, not patented. The cultivar Barbara was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Essen, Belgium. Plants of the new Hydrangea differs from plants of the parent selections in plant habit, panicle form, flower size, and flower coloration.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by softwood cuttings taken at Essen, Belgium, since 1995, has shown that the unique features of this new Hydrangea are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Barbara have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature, light intensity, and daylength without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Barbaraxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Barbaraxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Upright and outwardly arching plant habit.
2. Large lacy flower panicles, open form.
3. Panicles with large white sepals on sterile flowers with numerous small fertile flowers.
Plants of the new Hydrangea are similar in flower color to plants of the Hydrangea paniculata cultivar Grandiflora, not patented. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Grand Haven, Mich., plants of the new Hydrangea differed from plants of the cultivar Grandiflora in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Hydrangea were smaller than plants of the cultivar Grandiflora.
2. Plants of the new Hydrangea were more outwardly arching and not as mounded as plants of the cultivar Grandiflora.
3. Plants of the new Hydrangea had lighter green-colored leaves than plants of the cultivar Grandiflora.
4. Plants of the new Hydrangea had more open and lacy panicles than plants of the cultivar Grandiflora.
5. Plants of the new Hydrangea had much larger, but fewer, sterile flowers than plants of the cultivar Grandiflora.
Plants of the new Hydrangea are also similar in flower color to plants of the Hydrangea paniculata cultivar Tardiva, not patented. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Grand Haven, Mich., plants of the new Hydrangea differed from plants of the cultivar Tardiva in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Hydrangea were smaller than plants of the cultivar Tardiva.
2. Plants of the new Hydrangea were more outwardly arching and not as upright as plants of the cultivar Tardiva.
3. Plants of the new Hydrangea had lighter green-colored leaves than plants of the cultivar Tardiva.
4. Plants of the new Hydrangea had much larger sterile flowers than plants of the cultivar Tardiva.
5. Plants of the new Hydrangea flowered earlier than plants of the cultivar Tardiva.